At about 1 p.m., the police, acting on information received, made their way to Sea Lots where they executed several search warrants and conducted several on-the-spot searches against residents in the community.

As a result, police recovered two high-powered 9mm pistols with two fully-loaded magazines, a quantity of assorted ammunition, two “imitation firearms”, along with a large quantity of cocaine and marijuana.

Speaking to members of the media at about 5 p.m. as the policemen and women prepared to leave the area, Alleyne said the exercise was part of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s (TTPS) continuing efforts in the war against crime.

“This here is just part of our continuing efforts to remove as many firearms off the streets of this country as we possibly can. We know that firearms are the main weapons used to commit violence on others in this country, so we at the TTPS are doing our best to remove these weapons from the streets, because we know that if we do this, we can significantly reduce serious reported crimes, especially homicides,” Alleyne said.

The firearms, he added, were believed to be connected “in some way or fashion” to gang activity in the area.

“We believe it is connected,” he said, “we worked on certain information which pointed us in this direction, ‘intel’ which told us that this was the best time to strike. So based on that, and other observations, we know for a fact that these weapons are related to gang activities.”

The Senior Superintendent also praised the actions of all the officers involved, saying that it was because of their hard work and dedication that the police were able to conduct such a successful and fruitful exercise yesterday afternoon.